Six years in prison for finding a hitman on the dark web

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Death by shooting for $5000?

Such supposed offers on Darknet sites are often scams

Photo: Silas Stein/ dpa

DeAnna Marie Stinson of Tampa, Florida has been sentenced to six years in prison and more than $12,000 in fines and compensation.

A district judge convicted the 51-year-old for trying to find a hitman on the dark web to kill her ex-partner's wife.

The website that Stinson used to hire the killer was not told in court.

According to a statement from the US Department of Justice, however, it was a site that only offered such criminal services.

"Death by shooting" should cost 5,000 dollars, a sniper even 20,000 - that showed screenshots of the page that the prosecutor presented in court.

However, the offer was apparently operated by scammers – which is often the case.

Because Stinson wrote several times in the site's forum that she had a "job" to offer in Florida, including the woman's name, address and photo.

'Don't do it at home.

Any other place is fine," she wrote, among other things.

And: »Has to happen in July – preferably between the 5th and 11th.« In addition, she transferred the equivalent of around 12,000 dollars to the site operators in a total of five Bitcoin transactions.

She didn't get any answers.

The FBI became aware of the forum entries.

An undercover agent then contacted Stinson and posed as a hitman.

On the phone he told her he was going to make it look like a robbery.

He also assured himself that she really wanted the job to go ahead, which Stinson said she did.

The conversation was recorded and played back in court.

In addition, the investigators were able to trace the Bitcoin transfers to the site operators, after all, all transactions are stored in the blockchain so that everyone can see them.

Judge Steven Merryday said he felt as though he were convicting two people: a highly educated, successful, and religiously active businesswoman, and a calculating, brazen individual who desperately wanted someone killed, according to The Tampa Bay Times.

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